


The Various Applications of a Serpentine Scarf

by Howlingdawn



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Shapeshifter Loki (Marvel), i can't believe i've never written snake!loki before, i need to do it more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28606473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howlingdawn/pseuds/Howlingdawn
Summary: Knowing the man you love can turn into a snake is one thing. Seeing it is quite another. And having him wrapped around your shoulders is definitely a whole different level of odd. But it's also, well... kind of nice, actually.(Or: Five times Valkyrie lets snake!Loki get on her shoulders, and one time he's always been there.)
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Loki (Marvel)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 85





	The Various Applications of a Serpentine Scarf

**Author's Note:**

> This was a crack headcanon. And this fic was supposed to be much more humor, much less hurt/comfort. But I am who I am lol, and thus, this was born

**|i|**

Val hiked up the hill with Thor at her side. Above them, clouds drifted through the sky, and below them, waves crashed against the cliffside. It did remind her a bit of Asgard, she supposed, the combination of cliff and water, but… “Here? Really?”

Thor nodded. “Here. Really.”

“All right then.” She stopped, looking out over where the first houses were planned to be built down below. “I think this spot could work.”

Thor crossed his arms, frowning. “I didn’t want to be above the people.”

“It’s not about being above them,” Val said. “It’s about being where they can see you. It’ll comfort them.”

“If anyone was going to ask _my_ opinion,” Loki huffed, limping up to join them, “I approve of this spot.”

“See, I feel like that’s a negative for this,” Thor said.

“We might’ve asked you had you not been a mile behind us,” Val retorted.

Breathing too heavily for the simple hike, Loki shot her a glare. The bruises from Thanos’s fist still covered his neck like shadows, refusing to heal as stubbornly as Loki refused to acknowledge them. “You should be resting.”

“I’m bored of resting.”

“You should be wearing your brace.”

“It itches.”

Val pursed her lips, taking his hand and tugging him close, giving him an excuse to lean on her that he took far too easily. “You’re an idiot.”

“I love you, too,” he said. “Why exactly is my opinion a vote against this spot for our home?”

“Because you have a tendency to like being above the people,” Thor pointed out.

“A man can change.”

“Mhm. Remind me again of what you said when you came to rescue them from Asgard?”

“I-”

His next word died in a choked cough, his hand tightening his grip on her shoulder to bruising force as he kept coughing. She rubbed his back through the fit, exchanging a worried glance with Thor. “You really should rest,” she repeated.

He answered only with a hoarse noncommittal grunt, pressing his hand gingerly to his neck as the fit died down, looking pitifully small against the marks the Titan had left. She lifted her own hand to cover him, twining her fingers gently with his, wishing that she didn’t understand all too well _why_ he wouldn’t sit still and let himself heal.

“Loki,” Thor rebuked, tipping his head to Val, “you can rest here.”

For some reason, Loki arched an eyebrow at that, a spark of mischief flickering to life in his eyes, that same mischief reflected in Thor’s expression as he gave an encouraging smile.

Warily, she glanced between the two brothers. “What are you-”

In a ripple of emerald light, Loki began to disappear from her side. She jumped, her arm suddenly wrapped around empty air. Empty air, that was, except for…

Except for the emerald snake now twined around her, the black and gold diamond pattern on its back gleaming in the day’s scattered sunlight.

Were she a different woman, she might’ve screamed. As it was, she barely suppressed a yelp – _seeing_ her boyfriend turn into a snake was an _entirely_ different thing from simply _knowing_ he could do it, especially when he was _on_ her. “I did _not_ agree to this.”

Loki somehow managed to look at her with puppy eyes, his forked tongue flicking innocently out.

“It’s how he shows affection,” Thor said, mirth lighting up his tone as he watched Loki slither up her arm to drape himself around her shoulders.

_Damn it, it’s kind of cute._

He curled around her neck like an odd scarf, booping his snout against her cheek as if to give her a kiss. Hesitantly, she stroked underneath his chin, and he closed his eyes contentedly, laying his head on her finger.

“You knew he would do this,” she said accusingly.

Thor shrugged. “He had a whole phase where he would use it as a loophole to go to all the boring dinners our parents forced us to attend without having to talk to anyone. And it came in handy when we were sneaking around before he learned to cloak us. He hasn’t done it in a few centuries, though, so I wasn’t entirely sure he would take the hint.”

“Let me guess, people kept flinging him off when a snake suddenly appeared on their shoulders?”

“Maybe,” Thor said.

Loki opened one eye to glare at him.

“You kept stabbing me!” he protested.

She could’ve sworn Loki smirked at that.

“You’re supposed to be resting,” she scolded.

He stuck his tongue out at her with a faint hiss before slithering back, laying his head carefully straight on her shoulder. “If you want to stay on my shoulders, don’t hiss at me.”

“So he’s staying?” Thor checked.

Val sighed. “ _Once_. He can stay _just this once_. You hear me, Loki? This is a _one-time thing_.”

“I said that, too, you know.”

Loki didn’t respond at all.

**|ii|**

Loki put on a polite smile when they met with human politicians, many of whom seemed far too concerned about Loki’s presence on Earth even though they hailed from countries that were very, very far away from Norway. But he tolerated the interest that bordered on hostility, soothing them with his usual talent with words, his outfit dialed down to seem less armored and threatening. It seemed to work, assuaging a fair number of them, taking his reassurances before going off to spend more time with Thor and the others.

But as the hours dragged on, Val watched the weight of Asgard’s future sit more and more heavily on his shoulders, the stress of carrying it cracking through his carefully crafted mask of royal propriety. His voice carried a bladed edge when a conversation took too personal a turn, sharpening as they pushed too close to sensitive subjects. He clasped his hands behind his back, hiding his clenched fists and telltale fidgeting from the humans, and she took one of his hands into hers, letting him squeeze her instead of himself as she tried to steer the human elsewhere.

When the day’s end finally came, he tried not to let it show, but his shoulders slumped nonetheless, exhaustion casting a shadow over the light in his eyes, and they still had to deal with the flight home on a quinjet crowded with human heroes who still weren’t quite sure they were ready to trust him, and he certainly wasn’t ready to trust them.

She pulled him aside before they reached the ship. “Get on,” she sighed, gesturing at her shoulders.

He glanced at her, arching an eyebrow. “I thought you said-”

“Offer ends in three-”

In a flash, there was a snake on her shoulders. He was smaller this time, his green and gold darker, the black more spread out and dominant, blending more into her outfit. He snuggled into her, head tucked against her neck, and she found herself almost starting to smile, tucking his tail in when it slipped from his coils.

“Hey, Val, we gotta- uh,” Stark said, popping his head out of the quinjet. “Why is there a snake on your shoulders?”

“No reason,” she answered, striding past him and taking her seat beside Thor. He tried to poke his brother, and she smacked his hand away. “Let’s go.”

“Where’s L-”

“Right where he belongs,” Thor answered, rubbing his hand with a pouty expression.

Stark narrowed his eyes at the snake, but he took the pilot’s seat without another word.

**|iii|**

_On the gods, I have never been this bored in my entire life._

Leading the Valkyrie hadn’t been all battles and training sessions. She had endured all the necessary minutia of leadership before. She knew the routine, knew what she had to deal with so she could get to the good stuff, to the reasons she had wanted to take charge in the first place. Therefore, she had known what it would entail when she agreed to help the brothers rebuild Asgard, and she had even expected it to be worse.

But she had never had to listen to _this_ man while enduring the minutia.

He droned _on_ and _on_. He hadn’t blinked once in the last thirty minutes. His tone never changed. His expression never wavered. She smothered yawn after yawn, hands clasped behind her back, the slightest twitch of a finger feeling akin to screaming and punching the wall next to his monotone stillness.

Supposedly, he had been one of Odin’s closest advisors, and his counsel had led to many improvements in Asgardian life, and he would likely have many ideas for how to help them now.

Val was quite confident Thor had only said that to trick her into agreeing to attend this meeting in his stead.

She glanced at the door for about the trillionth time. _So close and yet so fa- Wait._

Movement caught her eye. Pressed against the wall, a lithe shape slipped along the floor, barely visible as its coloring shifted to blend into the wood. But as she watched it out of the corner of her eye, she made out the faintest of diamond patterns on the back of… a snake.

_Loki._

He broke from the wall only to slither over to her foot. He nudged her ankle, the scales on his head changing color to show a little golden helmet, as if she hadn’t guessed the chameleon snake sneaking into the room was the only shapeshifter on the planet. Checking to make sure nothing had changed with the advisor, she flicked a finger to summon him up.

He climbed slowly, careful to stay out of the old man’s sight, hiding beneath her hair. Val focused innocently on the advisor, pretending to nod along intently, wondering a little belatedly what exactly Loki was planning to do.

His head shot out towards the old man, his green and gold suddenly flaring blinding neon, fangs bared, hissing ferociously.

The advisor froze mid-sentence. Blinked once. And with a mumbled “Pardon me, ma’am,” scurried from the room faster than Val had known he could move.

Loki sat back in disappointment, settling his colors back to their normal vibrance. “Pity. He used to faint on the spot when I did that.”

Val jumped at his voice echoing from the snake. “You can _talk_ like that?”

“Of course I can.”

“Were you planning on telling me?”

“It’s more fun to bide my time until the proper moment.”

She pursed her lips. “I suppose you were in on this little stunt.”

“I was,” he confirmed, far too cheerfully for her liking.

She picked him up and dumped him unceremoniously on the table.

“Hey!” he protested. “Don’t I get credit for saving you from him?”

She turned on her heel, striding out of the room. “Nope.”

He shifted back into an Asgardian to follow her, scrambling somewhat awkwardly off the table to catch up to her brisk pace. “What if I told you it was Thor’s idea?”

“I wouldn’t believe you,” she said, wishing her legs were longer. Aside from that initial half-jog, he was keeping up _far_ too easily.

“Well, it was.”

She shot him a look.

“…Partially.”

“Better.”

“Come on! It was a joke.”

_I know, but it’s fun getting revenge._

She stopped abruptly, making him stumble to stop in time. “Do you really want to make it up to me?”

He narrowed his eyes at her tone. “What do you have in mind?”

She held her hand out. “There’s a moron who insists on harassing some of my trainees.”

Gleeful mischief lit his entire being. “Say no more.”

This time, she helped tuck him into her hair, making sure he was well-hidden.

_Maybe this has its uses._

**|iv|**

Val ran along the coastline, wind whipping through her hair, feet pounding the ground, heart thundering in her chest, lungs for aching air. She stumbled, her burning muscles threatening to collapse beneath her, but still she ran. She ran from the past, ran from the pain, ran from the urge to drink until she couldn’t remember a damn thing.

Her foot caught in a dip in the ground, her ankle twisting and plunging her to the ground. She barely caught herself, the awkward impact reverberating painfully into her wrists and arms. “Ow.”

As she was pushing herself up, an eagle landed in front of her, head tilted curiously.

“Of course _that_ had an audience,” she grumbled, sitting up and stretching her leg out gingerly. “That’s gonna hurt in the morning.”

“I bet it hurts now.”

Val jumped as Loki’s voice came from… the bird?

_Oh._

She almost dragged her hand down her face, stopping at the dirt and grass staining it. “Damn it, Loki, I’m supposed to be _alone_.”

“You never would’ve known had you managed to stay on your feet,” he countered, walking over and nudging her hand with his beak, plucking off a piece of dirt.

“Semantics.” She leaned back, brushing her hand off on her pants. “Why are you stalking me?

“It’s not _stalking_ ,” he protested indignantly. “It’s concerned following. And I’m here because I know what day it is.”

_But you were too young to remember the exact day. Unless…_ “Odin made it a holiday or something, didn’t he?”

The eagle nodded.

“Bastard,” she growled. “He _would_ twist his daughter murdering all of my sisters into something glorious.”

Loki lowered his head, remaining silent.

“We’re ending that,” Val said. “Or… changing it. We’re doing something. I don’t want their memory to be _his_ legacy.”

“We can talk about that,” Loki agreed. “But you’d have to come home for that.”

“No.”

“Is it your foot?”

She glared. “Leave me alone.”

He shrugged, spreading his wings. “As you wish.”

“…Wait.”

He closed his wings smugly, straightening up. “Yes?”

She laid back in the grass, pillowing her head on her interlocked hands, closing her eyes with a sigh. “You know the drill.”

The snake that settled on her shoulder was ridiculously tiny, his weight almost unnoticeable, but he had made sure that the little smiley faces inside each and every diamond were quite clear. “You’re ridiculous.”

“But you’re smiling.”

“Shut up.”

“Only because flight is tiring.”

He coiled up with his back to her, asleep in moments. And maybe… maybe it _was_ nice, having him there and yet not there, a familiar presence making it clear she wasn’t alone without encroaching on the memory of the worst day of her life, cheering her up with companionable silence and his stupid smiley faces.

Maybe the grief didn’t feel quite as overwhelming as it had a few minutes ago.

_Maybe this does have its uses._

**|v|**

She hunched over their bathroom sink, cold water dripping down her face, only the feeblest of dawn light peeking through the window. She buried her fingers in her hair, twisting them in to stop the shaking, fighting to regain control of her breathing, each breath scraping past a throat hoarse from her screams.

If only they had drowned out the echoes of her sisters’ screams as they were slaughtered.

“Val?”

Loki’s voice wavered slightly, and maybe it was that that pulled her out of her head. She straightened up, swiping a hand across her eyes – not that it would do much good, seeing as they had both woken up screaming at the same time. “Sorry,” she said, her own voice rough as she pushed open the door. “I just… needed a minute.”

He laid on his back, rubbing at phantom chains on his wrists, and that told her plenty about what had stalked his nightmares that night. He stared hollowly at the ceiling, but when she came out, he blinked rapidly, focusing his attention on her. “You don’t have to explain.”

She flopped down across him, burrowing into him, bringing one of his slightly reddened wrists to her lips, clinging to his warmth, to how _alive_ he was. “I kind of hate that I don’t,” she murmured.

He curled around her, rolling them over so he could watch the sunrise, tucking her against his chest where she could feel him breathe, feel his heart beat. “I wish I had to explain it, too.”

She huffed softly, tracing idle patterns inside his wrist. “What sort of a pair are we?”

He played with her hair, soothing her scalp where she had pulled too hard. “A perfectly screwed up one.”

They faded into silence, just holding each other as the sun rose over them, trying to find the strength to face the day.

But when the time came, when the alarm went off and when they were both dressed, she still didn’t want to let go of him, and he had resumed fidgeting with his wrists, and he didn’t have to be anywhere for a couple hours…

_It really is useful._

“Get on.”

He didn’t hesitate, and as his familiar weight settled across her shoulders, his muted yet comforting colors filling the edges of her vision, she breathed a little easier.

**|vi|**

It was never going to be a one-time thing.

She should’ve known that from the start, because it never was with Loki. One round of sparring, one shared drink, one team-up to defeat a villain, one kiss, one night sharing a bed, they always turned into more – into two rounds, three drinks, five villains, ten kisses, twenty nights, and more and more and more, growing from strangers forced together by circumstance to family staying together by choice. He lured you in with the charisma expected of a trickster prince, then showed you a broken heart of gold worth staying for, and suddenly, for better or worse, he was a part of your life you never wanted to lose.

Of course he would do the same with hanging out on her shoulders as a snake.

Scheming to prank the unaware filled them with laughter. His ever-shifting colors gave her something new and beautiful yet comfortingly familiar to admire every time. Lifting her hand instinctively to help him slither around reminded her that she had someone to live for again. The weight around her shoulders grounded her when everything tried to overwhelm her. His stillness as he slept tucked against her warmed her with the trust he placed in her. And knowing she could carry him when he couldn’t carry himself gave her reason to never feel helpless again.

Of course it had become a habit. Of course it had long ago started to feel strange when months passed between them finding excuses to do it. Of course it had become a comfort on their darkest days, and a joy on their brightest.

And of course they would do it now, sitting in the compound, planning the time travel heist that would either save half the universe or get them all killed.

He coiled around her neck, tense as a loaded spring, participating in the conversation only by whispering in her ear, hissing at the slightest provocation. She stroked a soothing finger down his back, tracing the jagged golden edges of his diamond pattern, stubbornly trying to ignore the voice in the back of her mind wondering if this would be the last time they did this, if five years after his first try, Thanos would finally take her love from her.

When they broke for lunch, she retreated, taking them from the pressures of others, finding a shaded spot to sit in the grass and just take a minute to breathe. “I don’t want to lose you,” she murmured.

Loki stretched up, growing as he did so to more thoroughly wrap around her shoulders, and pressed the top of his head to her cheek.

It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t a reassurance. They both knew better than that.

But it was enough.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, smiling despite it all, tilting her head to lean into the touch. “I love you, too, Lackey.”

He flicked her neck with the tip of his tail.

“I’m not taking it back.”

He hissed in resigned discontent, but only moved to rest more securely against her, and so, for a while, they simply sat beneath the clouds, ignoring the others’ searching calls to treasure these quiet moments together.


End file.
